Police identify slain 14-year-old Toronto girl

CTV News

Executive Branch Member
Sep 26, 2006
8,504
1
38
www.ctv.ca
Police have identified the 14-year-old Toronto girl fatally stabbed on New Year's Day as Stefanie Rengel, who classmates described as a happy and friendly student.

More...
 

spaminator

Hall of Fame Member
Oct 26, 2009
35,870
3,046
113
Woman who orchestrated Rengel killing granted day parole
Sam Pazzano Courts Bureau
Published:
November 27, 2018
Updated:
November 28, 2018 8:20 AM EST
Melissa Todorovic, convicted of persuading her boyfriend to kill 14-year-old Stefanie Rengel.
KITCHENER, Ont. — A jealous teen who sexually manipulated her lovestruck boyfriend into murdering a 14-year-old girl was granted day parole for six months.
The Parole Board of Canada made the decision on Melissa Todorovic’s case Tuesday after a hearing at the Grand Valley Institution in Kitchener, where she is being held.
The 26-year-old inmate accepted complete responsibility for masterminding the New Year’s Day 2008 killing by lover David Bagshaw of Stefanie Rengel whom Todorovic viewed as a rival.
Stefanie Rengel, 14, was fatally stabbed New Year’s Day 2008.
Rengel had briefly dated Todorovic’s then-boyfriend, David Bagshaw, years earlier and Todorovic threatened to break up with him or withhold sex unless he killed his former flame.
Rengel’s divorced parents, Patricia Hung and Adolfo Rengel, both said afterwards they were scarred by the tragedy and noted that Todorovic “couldn’t show any empathy for the victims.
Woman behind Rengel murder wanted boyfriend to kill other rivals
Mastermind in Stefanie Rengel murder loses appeal
MANDEL: Killer Melissa Todorovic still pulling the strings?
“The reality is that no one comes through such a devastating event unscathed,” said Hung, a retired Toronto Police officer, in reading her victim impact statement.
“I live in fear every day. Everything frightens me. The simplest things, such as shopping for groceries with my husband (Sgt. James Hung) and leaving the kids at home, is one example,” said Hung, a mom of six, including two adopted girls from China.
David Bagshaw, convicted of killing 14-year-old Stefanie Rengel in 2008.
A teen sentenced as an adult, Todorovic is serving a life in prison without parole eligibility for seven years after being convicted of first-degree murder in 2009. Bagshaw pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in 2009 and was sentenced to life with no parole for 10 years.
“I don’t believe 10 years in jail is sufficient punishment (for murder). We are the victims doing a life sentence,” said Stefanie’s father, Adolfo, a court officer who drives inmates throughout the GTA.
“There has been 10 years of suffering for our families, birthdays, Christmas, not being able to see Stefanie grow. Melissa Todorovic is a very smart woman and obviously extremely good at manipulating for her advantage as we know,” said Rengel, a father of three.
The board imposed restrictions, including one that Todorovic would have to report any relationships, from friendships to intimate unions, to her supervisor. She was ordered to avoid the Rengel families and report any accidental or incidental contact with them.
— With files from The Canadian Press
spazzano@postmedia.com
http://torontosun.com/news/local-ne...-rengel-killing-to-appear-before-parole-board
 

spaminator

Hall of Fame Member
Oct 26, 2009
35,870
3,046
113
MANDEL: Killer Melissa Todorovic still pulling the strings?
Michele Mandel
Published:
November 27, 2018
Updated:
November 27, 2018 8:35 PM EST
Melissa Todorovic is shown in an undated handout photo. Canadian Press file
Time marches on for everyone but the dead and the shattered families who grieve them.
Of course, Melissa Todorovic has been granted day parole after serving just short of 11 years of her life sentence for blackmailing her boyfriend into killing 14-year-old Stefanie Rengel.
We’d be fools to be shocked. In fact, the only surprising thing here is that Todorovic, 26, wasn’t on her way to a halfway house when she was first eligible to apply five years ago.
Instead, she has patiently bided her time, a puppet master well-versed in what she needs to do to get her own way.
Melissa Todorovic, convicted of persuading her boyfriend to kill 14-year-old Stefanie Rengel.
Todorovic was only 15 when the ‘A’ student became strangely obsessed with Rengel, who had briefly — and platonically — dated her boyfriend, David Bagshaw, two years before. After her unrelenting eight-month campaign of phone calls, 50,000 MSN messages and thousands of texts rife with sexual blackmail — “Ur getting blocked until u kill her” — her lovesick boyfriend finally agreed to carry out the plan.
On New Year’s Day, 2008, just days shy of his 18th birthday, Bagshaw lured Stefanie from her East York home and stabbed her six times in the abdomen, ripping through the black sweater her mother had given her for Christmas just days before.
Undated photo of Stefanie Rengel, 14. Postmedia file
He then left her to bleed to death in a snowbank while he hurried to Todorovic to claim his sexual reward.
“Is she dead?” Todorovic had demanded.
First she wanted Baghsaw to re-enact the murder. Once satisfied, she delivered on her promise and the two killers had triumphant sex while Stefanie’s body was still warm.
Their celebration was short-lived, of course. Within hours of the vicious murder, Bagshaw, 17, and Todorovic, 15, were under arrest. Both were convicted of first-degree murder under the Youth Criminal Justice Act but sentenced as adults to life terms with Bagshaw eligible for parole after 10 years, Todorovic after just seven.
The wise Justice Ian Nordheimer, now on the appeal court, had her number from the start: “The puppet master is not less blameworthy than the puppet,” he ruled in deciding to sentence her as an adult and not a youth.
“Indeed, I would suggest that the master is more culpable since he or she puts the wheels in motion and then stands back under a façade of disassociation while the scheme that they have created unfolds.”
Todorovic could have sought day parole in 2013 and full parole in January 2015.
So here’s the only good news in this story: The mastermind killer has been in Grand Valley Institution for Women until now instead of being freed to a halfway house as far back as 2013.
But now she’s heading to Brampton with her eyes on a heterosexual relationship after her many years on the inside. She insists she’s now successfully dealt with her issues of jealousy, anger and low self-esteem, so presumably no former girlfriends need fear her homicidal plots.
Or is she just saying what the parole board wants to hear? Todorovic was already a master manipulator as a young teen. Just imagine what she’s learned since then.
And how can she be rehabilitated when we still don’t know what would possess an otherwise normal high schooler to coolly orchestrate the violent execution of a girl she’d never even met?
Stefanie’s grieving mother, Patricia Hung, is understandably skeptical. Last year, her daughter’s killer said she felt like a monster for killing “somebody” — with no sign of the all-consuming, “crushingly sorry” emotions that a truly remorseful person would display.
“We all know that prison sentences are not exclusively about punishment and that the goal, at least in theory, is equally about rehabilitation and reintegration into society,” the retired police officer said in her victim impact statement.
“I do not see a changed person in Melissa. I see someone who has become more cunning, hoping with those few words of so-called remorse that she is fooling those who should have the experience to see through them, I do not hear empathy here, except for herself.”
Yet here we are, as predicted, with Todorovic perhaps having successfully pulled the strings she needed to free herself from prison.
mmandel@postmedia.com
http://torontosun.com/news/local-news/mandel-killer-melissa-todorovic-still-pulling-the-strings
 

spaminator

Hall of Fame Member
Oct 26, 2009
35,870
3,046
113
MANDEL: Love triangle lands killer Melissa Todorovic yanked back to prison
Michele Mandel
Published:
August 30, 2019
Updated:
August 31, 2019 9:33 AM EDT
Melissa Todorovic, convicted of persuading her boyfriend to kill 14-year-old Stefanie Rengel.
KITCHENER — The puppet master has finally met her match.
And so killer Melissa Todorovic has had her day parole revoked and she’ll remain behind bars for orchestrating the senseless murder of 14-year-old Stefanie Rengel.
Todorovic, 27, had tried to convince the Parole Board of Canada that she had learned her lesson, that she now realizes she should have abided by her day parole conditions and disclosed that she was in the midst of an “unhealthy” love triangle with two ex-cons.
You think?
Stefanie Rengel, 14, was fatally stabbed New Year’s Day 2008.
But she kept it a secret, starting a dalliance with a high-risk offender named “Kirk” who she’d met at a group for reintegrating former inmates, signing herself out of her Brampton halfway house and lying about where she was going.
And then, unsatisfied with the sexual prowess of her first paramour, she set her sights on his best friend “Dennis” and started an affair with him, as well.
All the while, playing them against each other as only a cunning puppet master can do.
We’ve all heard this story before, of course. The jealous Todorovic was 15 when she blackmailed her boyfriend David Bagshaw into killing Rengel — whose parents were both Toronto cops at the time but her mom is now a grief counsellor.
David Bagshaw, convicted of killing 14-year-old Stefanie Rengel in 2008.
Todorovic became strangely obsessed with Rengel, who had briefly — and platonically — dated Bagshaw, two years before. After her unrelenting eight-month campaign of phone calls, 50,000 MSN messages and thousands of texts rife with sexual blackmail — “Ur getting blocked until u kill her” — her lovesick boyfriend finally agreed to carry out the plan.
On New Year’s Day, 2008, just days shy of his 18th birthday, Bagshaw lured Stefanie from her East York home and stabbed her six times in the abdomen, ripping through the black sweater her mother had given her for Christmas just days earlier.
He then left her to bleed to death in a snowbank.
All this time later, released after serving only about 11 years of her life sentence for first degree murder, Todorovic is falling back into her old pattern: Playing with people’s lives.
Presteign United Church, Funeral for Stefanie Rengel, Colour Guard Carries coffin of Stefanie to the hearse as family looks on. Sun files)
Parole board hearing officer Shannon Stewart wasn’t falling for any of it: not her mea culpa or Todorovic’s insistence that she should be given another chance, this time at a halfway house in Kingston.
“It’s calculated deception,” Stewart told her, in revoking her day parole. “Within two months, you’re back to your offence cycle (of manipulating men). It’s very, very, very concerning.”
Rengel’s mother, Patricia Hung, said she was relieved by the revocation of Todorovic’s day parole.
“Getting the news that Melissa reoffended badly enough to be taken into custody was shocking,” she said in her victim impact statement. “The fact that Melissa, in just a few short months, was unable to abide by her very limited conditions, raises red flags that are, frankly, terrifying.”
Todorovic was awarded day parole last November under pretty lenient conditions: All she had to do was continue counselling and report any relationships to her parole officer.
Yet almost immediately, she was secretly looking for love in all the wrong places. “I knew it was wrong,” Todorovic admitted. “I didn’t have people to talk to. I liked people complimenting me and giving me attention and didn’t want that to end.”
She even tried to deflect the blame. “Nobody asked me if I was in a relationship,” she said.
That didn’t fly with the hearing officer, who accused her of downplaying her web of lies to everyone from her family to her team of support workers.
“You chose to deceive,” Stewart said.
It was only by happenstance that her clandestine hook-ups were uncovered. Her community parole officer Angela Law told the hearing she was informed by Kirk’s probation officer, who had recognized Todorovic from past media coverage of the gruesome killing.
A search of her room found a Valentine’s Day card from Kirk in which he apologized for not satisfying her and for not treating her well.
Woman who orchestrated Rengel killing granted day parole
MANDEL: Killer Melissa Todorovic still pulling the strings?
‘I wanted to see how far I could push this guy’: Woman behind Rengel murder wanted boyfriend to kill other rivals
Todorovic’s bail was suspended in March and she was returned to the Grand Valley Institution for Women for violating her conditions. Friday’s hearing was to determine whether her day parole should be permanently revoked — she can reapply in a year — or reinstated under new conditions.
Her parole officer recommended she remain in prison because her failure to disclose that she was involved in not one, but two, relationships and her “manipulating them against one another” show she still presents an undue risk to the public.
The hearing officer agreed — and so in prison she’ll remain.
Todorovic, who has gained weight and cut her hair since her 2009 trial, wiped away tears throughout the hearing but simply stared coldly at Stewart when told she’d be losing her freedom.
Somebody had finally cut her strings.
mmandel@postmedia.com
http://torontosun.com/news/local-ne...gel-killing-set-to-appear-before-parole-board
 

spaminator

Hall of Fame Member
Oct 26, 2009
35,870
3,046
113
Jealous killer's parole revoked for hiding affairs
Sam Pazzano Courts Bureau
Published:
September 10, 2019
Updated:
September 10, 2019 8:19 PM EDT
Melissa Todorovic is shown in an undated handout photo. Canadian Press file
A jealous teen who manipulated her thuggish boyfriend to kill his teenage ex had her day parole revoked because she concealed a love triangle with two former inmates outside prison, a parole board decision stated.
The Parole Board of Canada ruled that Melissa Todorovic should lose her day parole privileges after discovering she never revealed two romantic relationships, violating one of the conditions of her release.
Stefanie Rengel, 14, was fatally stabbed New Year’s Day 2008.
“You admitted you were in two different relationships with two different men, who were both friends and both on probation,” the decision stated.
“You also admitted you didn’t let (community residency staff know) that you were with both these men when you signed out and that you attended both men’s homes but didn’t inform staff,” the decision added.
Todorovic was granted six months of day parole in November. The board thought she was starting to understand what compelled her to orchestrate the senseless, New Year’s Day 2008 killing of 14-year-old Stefanie Rengel by Todorovic’s lover David Bagshaw, then 17.
David Bagshaw, convicted of killing 14-year-old Stefanie Rengel in 2008.
“She appeared to be manipulating them against one another,” telling the first man he was not satisfying her sexually and complaining about it to the second, parole officer Angela Law told the parole board hearing last month.
Bagshaw had briefly dated Rengel years earlier. Todorovic, who was 15 at the time, repeatedly vowed to break up with Bagshaw or deny him sex unless he murdered Rengel, a girl she’d never met.
MANDEL: Love triangle lands killer Melissa Todorovic yanked back to prison
MANDEL: Killer Melissa Todorovic still pulling the strings?
‘I wanted to see how far I could push this guy’: Woman behind Rengel murder wanted boyfriend to kill other rivals
He lured Rengel out of her home and repeatedly stabbing her.
Both Todorovic and Bagshaw were convicted of first-degree murder in 2009 and sentenced as adults to life in prison, with parole eligibility set at seven years for Todorovic and 10 years for Bagshaw.
spazzano@postmedia.com
http://torontosun.com/news/crime/jealous-killers-parole-revoked-for-hiding-affairs
 

spaminator

Hall of Fame Member
Oct 26, 2009
35,870
3,046
113
Schoolgirl killer denied day parole
Sam Pazzano Courts Bureau
Published:
January 31, 2020
Updated:
January 31, 2020 6:22 PM EST
Melissa Todorovic is shown in an undated handout photo. Canadian Press file
A jealous teen who manipulated her thuggish boyfriend into kill his teenage ex lost her most recent bid for freedom.
Melissa Todorovic‘s appeal of a decision that revoked her day parole was dismissed.
The Parole Board of Canada ruled last fall that Todorovic should lose her day parole privileges after discovering she never revealed two romantic relationships, violating one of the conditions of her release.
She appealed that decision, saying the board relied heavily on the opinion of a parole officer that she was “manipulating these men.” Todorovic lost in a decision released Friday by the parole board’s appeal division.
“Your decision to withhold reporting these relationships highlight two principal risk factors — unhealthy relationships and emotional regulation,” stated the decision. “The evasiveness … demonstrates you were back in your offence cycle.”
Story continues below
Stefanie Rengel, 14, was fatally stabbed New Year’s Day 2008.
Todorovic was granted six months of day parole in November 2018. The board thought she was starting to understand what compelled her to orchestrate the senseless, New Year’s Day 2008 killing of 14-year-old Stefanie Rengel by Todorovic’s lover David Bagshaw, then 17.
MANDEL: Love triangle lands killer Melissa Todorovic yanked back to prison
Rengel's puppetmaster killer's show of 'genuine' feelings led to parole: Ruling
MANDEL: Killer Melissa Todorovic still pulling the strings?
Bagshaw had briefly dated Rengel years earlier. Todorovic, who was 15 at the time, manipulated Bagshaw until he murdered Rengel, a girl she’d never met.
He lured Rengel out of her home and repeatedly stabbed her.
Both Todorovic and Bagshaw were convicted of first-degree murder in 2009 and sentenced as adults to life in prison, with parole eligibility set at seven years for Todorovic and 10 years for Bagshaw.
http://torontosun.com/news/crime/schoolgirl-killer-denied-day-parole
 

spaminator

Hall of Fame Member
Oct 26, 2009
35,870
3,046
113
Puppet master killer wins another chance at freedom

Author of the article:Michele Mandel
Published Apr 17, 2024 • Last updated 1 day ago • 3 minute read

Teen killer Melissa Todorovic has pulled the strings once more — winning another chance at freedom.


Five years after she messed up her day parole with a secret love triangle with two ex-cons, using sex once again to manipulate men, the puppet master who ordered the killing of teenager Stefanie Rengel has been granted four 15-day passes at a Barrie halfway house to work on her re-entry into society.


“This is a very long journey and you can’t do it alone,” said parole board member Lynn Carter. “Because loneliness is one of your risk factors.”

Actually, manipulating men to get what she wants is her risk factor.

In 2008, the jealous Todorovic was just 15 when she warned there would be no more sex unless boyfriend David Bagshaw killed 14-year-old Rengel, who had briefly dated her beau two years before.

After an unrelenting eight-month barrage of phone calls, 50,000 MSN messages and thousands of texts rife with sexual blackmail — “Ur getting blocked until u kill her” — her lovesick boyfriend finally agreed. On New Year’s Day in 2008, days shy of his 18th birthday, Bagshaw lured Stefanie from her East York home and stabbed her six times, ripping through the black sweater her mother had given her for Christmas just days before.


Both Bagshaw and Todorovic were convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced as adults to life in prison. As Justice Ian Nordheimer opined at her sentencing, “The puppet master is not less blameworthy than the puppet.”

Just 11 years into her sentence, she convinced the board to release her on day parole with pretty lenient conditions: continue counselling and report any relationships.

Within two months, Todorovic was back to her old ways.

She’d sign herself out of her Brampton halfway house to conduct her clandestine affair with a high-risk offender she’d met at a group for former inmates. Unsatisfied with his sexual prowess, she then began a second secret affair with his best friend.

When her deception came to light, Todorovic was hauled back to Grand Valley Institution for Women and her day parole formally revoked in 2019.


Now 32, Todorovic backed out of a planned parole hearing last fall at the last minute. This time, she confessed to being nervous in her new bid for unescorted absences.

“I first just want to apologize to Stefanie’s family for having to put them through this process again,” began Todorovic, wearing a cardigan and glasses, and looking younger than her years. “I am ashamed of the decisions I made while I was on parole. I did put myself in the same situation.”

She insisted it was the male who persistently pursued her and she eventually gave in because she figured no one else would want her. “When I got attention from the first man, it helped boost my self-esteem,” Todorovic explained. “I think I just got caught up with the attention and I felt wanted and I was empowered by that.”


Sex, she admitted, was her power.

Todorovic assured the sympathetic board she now realizes her low self-esteem and issues with poor body image — she’s been battling binge eating — have led her into unhealthy relationships where she then tries to manipulate men. “Now I see it as a pattern,” she said.

Better late than never.

Through therapy, Todorovic said she’s learning to accept herself and reach out to her family for support when she’s lonely, which has included rebuilding her relationship with her brother. She’s matured and made strides to be more open and honest.

After saying all the right things, it took just over ten minutes for the board to come back and approve her request.


Carter first briefly mentioned Stefanie’s family in attendance.

“We’ve heard their heartbreak moving forward, we’ve heard their loss and they’ve certainly been taken into consideration today when making this decision.”

Did they really? Stefanie’s father Adolfo Rengel was disappointed, but not surprised.

“Right from the beginning, it sounded like the board felt sorry or compassionate for Melissa. When questions were asked, the board supplied ideas to Melissa, which she used to answer the question,” he complained.

“I love the part when she said, ‘I’m developing a great relationship with my brother and my parents,'” Rengel said sarcastically.

“Well, that’s great for her, since she took that away (from us) when she killed Stefanie.”

mmandel@postmedia.com